In the past 100 years, the number of cold and frost days has decreased in most parts of Europe, whereas the number of days with temperatures above 25°C and the number of heatwaves have increased. The frequency of very wet days has significantly decreased in recent decades in many places in southern Europe, but increased in mid and northern Europe. Cold winters are projected to disappear almost entirely by 2080 and hot summers are projected to become much more frequent. This will have a continuing effect on mountain regions. For every 1°C increase in temperature, the snowline rises by 150 metres. And by 2050, three-quarters of today's glaciers in parts of the Alps are expected to have disappeared.
Source: State of the Environment Report No 1/2005 "The European environment - State and outlook 2005" (published 29 Nov 2005)

(This video has no audio.)
In the past decade Europe has been affected by three remarkable weather extremes. The summers of 1995 and 2003 were extremely hot throughout most parts of Europe. In contrast, 2002 was very wet and saw extreme flooding in central Europe. Changes are also projected for the amount of rainfall in Europe, which could more pronounced flooding. Cold winters (which occurred once every 10 years from 1961 to 1990) are likely to become rare and will almost entirely disappear by 2080. In contrast, by 2080 nearly every summer in many parts of Europe is projected to be hotter than the 10 % hottest summers in the current climate. In southern Europe, these changes are projected to occur even earlier (in Spain by the 2020s) (Parry, 2000). This could have severe consequences for agriculture, water resources and the frequency of forest fires in southern Europe.
Source: EEA Report No 2/2004 "Impacts of Europe's changing climate" (published 18 Aug 2004)

Climate change is happening and will continue to have far-reaching consequences for human and natural systems. Impacts and vulnerabilities differ considerably across regions, territories and economic sectors in Europe. Strategies to adapt to climate change are necessary to manage impacts even if global temperature stays below a 2 °C increase above the pre-industrial level. The EU adaptation framework aims at developing a comprehensive strategy by 2013, to be supported by a clearinghouse for sharing and maintaining information on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation.

In her speech, Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency (EEA), stresses the importance of imbedding climate change into planning systems and processes. ESPACE (European Spatial Planning: Adapting to Climate Events) is a four-year European project promoting the importance of adapting the entire planning process to the impacts of climate change.

Climate change is one of the biggest environmental, social and economic threats our planet currently faces. Profound changes are about to affect the mechanisms supporting life on earth, and their impact in the next few decades will be considerable.

It is "virtually certain" that warm weather extreme events will become more frequent this century, according to a new summary report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 18 November. In order to explore ways of adapting to heatwaves and other extreme events potentially exacerbated in future by climate change, the IPCC has brought together a range of scientific and professional expertise.

Nizhny Novgorod has a population of 1.3 million and is one of Russia's most important industrial cities. Its process manufacturing plants are heavily reliant on water, supplied from the Volga River and one of its tributaries, the Oka. The region's drinking water also comes from the Upper Volga Basin.